The invention relates generally to the field of power wheeled vehicles for disabled persons.
To increase the mobility of disabled people who have only partial use of their legs, various motorized vehicles have been introduced. Usually these motorized vehicles consist of a wheel chair device with electrically powered drive wheels. The user generally sits down in the chair and operates the drive wheels via a control unit located in one of the wheel chair arms. Electrically operated wheel chair devices have been quite successful and has greatly increased the mobility of many disabled individuals. However, these wheel chair devices are quite limited in their use since they require substantially flat paved surfaces to operate on. Furthermore, since these devices have a relatively high center of gravity, if an electrically powered wheel chair was used on non-paved surfaces, the chances of it falling on it""s side are relatively high. In addition, given the relatively high center of gravity of these devices, and given the relative height of the seat portion of the wheel chair, it is very difficult for a disabled person to stand a wheel chair upright once it has toppled over. Therefore, there remains a need for an all terrain vehicle specifically for use by disabled individuals which is easy to operate and safe.
The present invention is a self-propelled vehicle having a housing with a substantially flat top surface the top surface having left and right sides. A first and second handle are mounted to the top surface such that the first and second handles are positioned above the left and right sides, respectively, of the top surface. The first and second handles being further positioned to be sufficiently spaced apart to permit a user to stand on the top surface between the handles and grasp the first and second handles with the left and right hand, respectively. The vehicle also has a drive mechanism for selectively driving the wheels, the drive mechanism having a control panel for controlling the drive mechanism.
Other and further objects, details and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings: